Many sheet product dispensing devices exist for holding and dispensing sheet products that are stored on sheet product rolls. For example, it is well known to provide a paper towel holder for holding and dispensing paper towels stored on paper towel rolls. One problem with existing sheet product dispensing devices, however, is that they do not allow a user to stop rotation of the sheet product roll without engaging the sheet product roll. This problem is enhanced when a user with wet hands makes contact with the paper towels on the paper towel roll in order to stop rotation of the paper towel roll to remove a paper towel. Instead, a user may unroll several paper towels from the paper towel roll in an attempt to rapidly separate a paper towel from a paper towel roll that has not been stopped from rotation.
Some sheet product dispensing devices are illustrated, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,978,197 to Anderson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,430,877 to Berlet, U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,532 to DeLuca, and U.S. Design Pat. No. 326,580 to Brazis. The above referenced sheet product dispensing devices are designed to be mounted to a surface to horizontally dispense sheet products stored on a sheet product roll. These sheet product dispensing devices, however, do not allow the sheet product roll to be selectively stopped from rotation when the sheet product is being dispensed without the user engaging the sheet product roll.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2002/0171003 by Johnson et al. also discloses a horizontally mounted sheet product dispensing device to receive a sheet product roll. This device includes a gripper that engages the sheet product roll to selectively stop the sheet product roll from rotation. The gripper, however, may be cumbersome to the operation of the sheet product dispensing device and may also increase the time needed to change the sheet product roll.
Some sheet product dispensing devices are arranged to hold a sheet product roll in a vertical configuration. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,368 to Duncan et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,832,739 to Kraus both disclose paper towel holders that hold a paper towel roll in a vertical configuration. Both paper towel holders include contact members that engage an outer surface of the paper towel rolls during rotation. These contact members, however, may not be sufficient to stop rotation of the paper towel roll and may not allow a user to tear one paper towel from the paper towel roll without either unrolling numerous paper towels from the paper towel roll or requiring the user to engage the paper towel roll to selectively stop rotation thereof.